Platform Housing's journey to reshape and future-proof its finance function

With Craig Barber, Shaping Future Finance Programme Director & Property Change Programme Lead at Platform Housing Group

Platform Housing is one of the largest housing associations in the UK, with a portfolio of over 47,000 homes. Since its formation in 2018 as the result of a merger between Fortis Living and Waterloo Housing Group, Platform Housing Group has seen significant growth, achieving over £300 million turnover.

In line with this growth, the Group is undergoing a company-wide change programme which includes modernising its Finance function. Over £267 million is spent annually across over 1,700 suppliers, with a total of 75,000 transactions processed through Purchase Orders last year with the number expected to grow year on year. As part of this digital transformation process, the company wanted a single solution for the Source-to-Pay process that could evolve as the company grows.

Following the merger, it became apparent that Procurement was playing a back-office role and, with rising prices, the 7% rent cap, increasing borrowing costs, and higher spend on repairs and maintenance continuing to impact social housing providers’ operating costs and driving the need to do more with less, strategic transformation was essential.

In this Webinar, Craig discusses the development and implementation of the “Shaping Future Finance” Programme, including:

• The initial current state assessment which teased out challenges faced by Platform Housing.
• Reduced risk of supplier non-performance with contract provisions.
• Why Proactis was selected to integrate with the company’s new Microsoft Dynamics ERP system including:
  • Transformation of the user purchasing experience, addressing related pain points, improving data quality and reporting.
  • Establishing a roadmap to stabilise, then transform.
  • Providing a compliant, controlled and transparent approach to how goods and services are bought across the group.